A Pause
by Dragonchad
Summary: Marco isn’t too sure about Star after their world’s nearly seperated forever
1. Chapter One

"Star..." Marco breathed, his heart in his throat. Not even an hour had passed. He had been stabbed in the chest, though the wound was gone, and then stabbed again metaphorically when he heard Star speak one of her last words to him.

"Do you have a plan? For us to see each other?" He had asked, desperate and pleading.

He could see the answer in her expression. The way she paused. "Y-yeah! Of course!" She had said. She had lied.

She had come back. Stayed with him as magic was destroyed. Was that enough? Was destroying magic really so necessary that she considered it more important than their relationship?

He didn't know. He _was _glad to see her. To know she was okay.

She slowly cupped his cheek and went in for a kiss, but Marco quickly pulled her into a hug.

Her mewberty wings were gone, he noted, inhaling her scent. Her cheek marks he had noticed, but this was definitely the same Star. She smelled like the putrid magic that he had, or whatever it had become when it roiled like a wretched sea in those panic filled minutes.

They had been 'together' for a little over two hours, by his estimation.

"Marco!" she cheered, smiling with a hint of confusion. "I'm so happy to see you..." she teetered off at his expression.

It was serious. Marco never looked that intense unless he felt something vital was happening, or that something was wrong.

"Star." He said firmly, if not for the way his voice wavered and cracked. "I don't... I don't know if this will work out."

"What?" Star asked. Her voice was confused, but it was quieter than her normal register. She knew what he was talking about.

"I just need to get some things straight. You... I... Well. I just want to think about this." He finally said, not wanting to voice his reasons.

"Why?" She asked, but she didn't sound sad. Any sorrow she may be feeling came out as outrage. "We just got together and you want to what? Break up?! I thought you loved me, Marco Diaz!"

Marco nodded, not arguing with his previous words. "I do love you. A lot. I think if you made me choose between earth or my parents or even Mariposa, I'd probably choose you. But... you can't say the same? I... I just need to reason this out. You made your decisions, and I kind of agree with them, but you were ready to leave me there. You told me to go to Earth without you. Without even knowing if we could see each other again."

Star had no argument. That was what she had done. Impulsive as always, and her tapestry had even said that it would come to this.

But then, Marco was in front of her. The tapestry didn't show him, or the dimensions coming together.

"I'm sorry Star." Marco said, interrupting her train of thought. "I'm just going to go home." He muttered, turning around and walking away.

"Marco..." Star whimpered, tears in her eyes.

His shoulders were hunched over, his hands in his hoodie pockets. He kicked a rock as he walked, ignoring the tears in his eyes.


	2. Chapter Two

Mariposa wriggled her finger at him, old and frayed puppet perched daintily on her finger.

Sometimes she had this look in her eyes that told him that she remembered her life without them. The life in the neverzone. It wasn't that bad of a place, and they had clearly grown well enough there. He would know well what it was like to spend fifteen years in that world, though he had at least already been old enough to defend himself.

"It's alright Mariposa. Meteora will be by to see you in a few days. She's just getting to see her parents now. They haven't been able to settle down for a little while."

Mariposa gurgled and squeaked childishly, but he felt she understood.

"I love you, Mariposa." He whispered, kissing her forehead before he walked away.

It had been a few days. Life was vexing, and people weren't settling immediately into the sudden collapse of dimensions into one another. For one thing, his parents had finally met Nachos, which was nice. On the other, he had to kill a few of the beasts that attacked Echo Creek, and they found out exactly how much practice he had with that.

In all the things that changed, some stayed the same. Britta's Tacos rebuilt and reopened, citing an earthquake as the cause for the collapse, which they were insured for, given them being in California.

He stopped by for lunch, grabbing a couple tacos and a drink. The only other patrons at this hour were Janna and a quiet monster that didn't seem to have the confidence to strike a conversation.

"Hey Janna. Thanks for helping me out earlier." He said as he sat down at her table.

"No problem, Marco. I heard you dumped the Princess. Something about performance issues with all the magic shebang?"

Marco frowned. "No! How did you hear about that anyway?!"

Janna raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "Um, Star's best friend is a huge gossip? She's been ranting about you for days, Diaz."

Marco groaned. "She's gonna ruin my reputation."

Janna raised her eyebrow, if possible, further. "Your reputation? You dropped out of High School to fight things in another dimension. You have a dragon motorcycle and everyone has seen you kill like ten monsters before they could get anyone. I think your 'reputation' is fine."

Marco groaned again, if anything just because he had nothing to say.

"I just don't know how to feel. Star was ready to leave me forever just to get rid of magic. Am I too clingy or something to expect her to at least hesitate to decide that?"

"Honestly? Yeah. You know Star doesn't really consider consequences to her actions until after she's done taking them, and you should be used to it by now. If anything, she probably had to feel a lot worse than you did once she had done it."

Marco sighed and slumped his head into his tray, ignoring the slight remains of his tacos as they sank into his face. "I just-"

"But." Janna interrupted. "You have a decent reason to be upset. You basically gave up your whole life to go help her out on Mewni, and she didn't ever really acknowledge that."

Marco suddenly remembered that she had admitted to putting a camera on his person at some point, and was worried about how much of it she had seen or gone through.

"But if you think about it, you don't really have any good options. You can be mad or whatever, or you can make up with her. Your call doofus."

Then with that helpful advice, Janna stood up and walked away with all the carelessness he had come to recognize as custom for her.

Marco stewed on Janna's comments for a good few minutes before sitting up and brushing his lunch off of his face.

"I gotta talk to Star." He decided.


	3. Chapter Three

There was a convenient excuse to go to Star's house, or rather Eclipsa's castle. Mariposa and Meteora were supposed to have a playdate, and he was just going to take her over himself.

Cars were a little iffy currently, with vast stretches of the planet suddenly being replaced with wild and overgrown vegetation and civilizations that hadn't been there previously, so his parents couldn't drive Mariposa over, and Marco was a little better at dealing with the man eating plants and vicious beasts of the multiverse.

This lead to him knocking on the castle door with hardly a scratch, and a babbling sister conveniently resting on his chest.

Eclipsa answered the door.

"Oh, Marco!" she exclaimed in surprise. "Is it Saturday already?"

"Hey Eclipsa. Yeah, it is. I brought Mariposa... um, do you know if Star is home?"

Meteora crawled over Eclipsa's back and around her chest before leaping to Marco's chest, slightly knocking him back. Meteora seemed to debate internally whether to hiss at Marco for a solid half a minute before wrapping her tail protectively around Mariposa.

"Star? Yes, I believe she should be here..."

Marco cut her off by stuffing the baby harness and the two little girls into her arms and sprinting towards Star's room.

Eclipsa held an expression of minor confusion before her daughter cheerfully babbled in her ear.

"Oh, my precious baby." Eclipsa sighed, wiping spit out of her ear and setting the children on the floor.

~_Line Break_~

Marco hesitated for half a second at Star's door before kicking it open.

He half expected her to not be there, just to make his rampant haste and aggressive actions to be pointless, but she was. Her eyes were a little red and puffy, and she was still in her pajamas.

"Er, hey." he said, waving awkwardly.

"Hey." She replied, tone soft and measured.

"Can uh, can we talk?"

"Sure." she agreed, rubbing her eyes in a vain attempt to cover up her state. She even faked a yawn, trying to make it seem like she had just woken up.

Marco held back a groan. This was more awkward than he thought it'd be. In fact, he hadn't really thought about it at all, if he were honest.

"I'm sorry." Star said, her voice cracking. "I didn't want to lie to you, and I didn't want to leave you! Magic had to be destroyed! It was the only way to stop Minna, and the only way that I could do that was to leave you! Glossaryck showed me my tapestry... it's what I became known for. I was the end. You weren't there, and I wanted you to be. Wasn't it enough that I came back? That I wanted to come to earth with you, even if I'd never see Mewni again?" She was full on crying now, hugging herself desperately to try and force the words out.

Marco felt his mind clear. "Yeah. It was. I'm sorry too, Star. I just felt weird. Like... I guess in my head, it was that you didn't care that you'd never see me again. That... that our kiss didn't mean anything. That I was just the next guy after Tom."

Star wiped her eyes clear, knowing it was pointless to cover up her red face. "Dummy. I wouldn't lie about stuff like that. I love you."

Marco sat down next to her and embraced her.

"I love you too. D'you... think you want to get back together?"

She laughed, and only replied with a single kiss.

"Aww." Eclipsa cooed from the half-ajar door.

"Eclipsa!" Star and Marco shouted. "Get out!" Star cried, throwing her comforter over her head.

"Is she gone?" She whispered after a few seconds.

"Yeah."

"I love you."

"I love you too."


End file.
